Time Traveller

I spent my weekend in my car. Or so it seems. Saturday morning I got up early and headed to Keswick, where my friend Michelle lives. It's about an hour and a half from my place. She graciously offered to help me pick up another piece of furniture from my ex boyfriend's in Collingwood.

From Keswick we drove to Collingwood, another hour and a half drive. We picked up the pine buffet, went to lunch at my favourite restaurant in Collingwood, Duncan's Cafe and then headed back to my place in Mississauga, yes another hour and a half trip.

I was amazed at how adept we were at putting the pine buffet into her van, getting it out and managing to set it upright on the dolly and then navigating it up to my apartment and gently setting it in place without one cross word, or injury. We were lucky to have my daughter helping at this end and the help of a friend of my ex's in Collingwood.

The fall colours on the trees were beautiful, although I think the peak for that would have been the weekend before, but still it was a lovely sunny day for a drive.

After we deposited the buffet at my place, we headed back to Keswick, had dinner out and I left at 9:30 pm to come home, a full 12 hours after I left my place in the morning.

According to my Rand McNally Tripmaker program the total trip was 189 miles or 304 kilometers. Map below outlines the journey. **Correction I forgot to add the miles to return to Keswick pick up my car and then drive home again, so the actual total was another 122 miles which works out to 311 miles or 500 km.




I had intended on going out for some fun and frivolity after my travels Sat night. Thinking that I could manage to fit in some pleasure with pain. Unfortunately, or fortunately however you choose to look at things, my intended source of pleasure had made other plans by the time I was able to make a connection by cell phone at 7:30 pm. In a way, I was relieved. I hadn't calculated the time that I would be spending in a vehicle accurately when I made my "fun" plans earlier in the week.

This seems to be one of my problems. Not really a problem to me, but it really bugs people that are involved with me, because I am invariably late for engagements or just can't attend because I'm too exhausted from all the other stuff I've piled on my plate earlier in the day.

You would think that by this age, I would have figured that sort of thing out.

In fairness to him though, he did offer to change his plans if I still wanted to get together, but I decided that it was a sign for me to go home and get some rest. I had already made a committment to take my mother out to my grandparent's on Sunday. Yes, another hour and a half drive. :o)

Mom and I left for my grandparent's a little later than we had planned and I would have to take full blame for that. It seems that all my time spent driving around Southern Ontario on Saturday did make me tired. I could not pull myself out of bed even though I tried to pry my eyes open several times.

My grandparent's were still happy to see us no matter what. In fact, I am very lucky to still have both my mother's parent's. My grandpa is 90 and my grandmother is 86. My grandfather is in very good shape for his age; he recently passed his written exam for his driver's license. Quite a feat that he is very proud of. Yes he is still driving around.

My grandmother's mind is not what it used to be and that is a shame. She was one of the brightest women I have ever known. She's read hundred's of books and up to just a couple of years ago, she was still doing daily crossword puzzles in the newspaper. She has since changed to word jumbles, because the crossword puzzles are too difficult for her now. I am impressed though. I still can't do crossword puzzles, so the fact that she has been doing them for years and just now finds them difficult is something that she can be proud of. Not to forget that she had to quit school after only a year in high school because like many women of her age, she had to go out to work to help support her family.

The most noticeable slippage is with her memory. It would appear to be mostly short term but now even her long term memory is not always there.

We were having a conversation about her grandmother and grandfather. Her grandfather was Scottish and her grandmother Irish. I was asking about their names, when they came to Canada etc. and she was trying to recall her grandfather's nickname when a knock came to the door.

One of their neighbours, Milly was stopping by to check up on them. My mother told her to come in for a visit and Milly, my mom, grandfather and I all started to talk. My grandmother was still standing near her chair with a concentrated look on her face. Occasionally she walked over to some packages that were to go home with us and started to look through one of the boxes. My mother kept telling her to leave it alone until after Milly left and to relax and enjoy the visit.

Finally my grandmother sat down and appeared to be listening to what everyone was talking about. I must add here that her hearing is really bad and she rarely wears her hearing aids. They bother her ears. We never know if she has them on. Seeing them in her ears is no indication that they are turned on or that she hears what you are saying.

I sat down in a chair opposite my grandmother. My grandfather and Milly were deep in conversation about some occurrence from the 40's or earlier and my mother had stepped out onto the balcony for a cigarette.

Suddenly my grandmother shouted "Honkey! That was his nickname! I have no idea what it meant, it's some sort of Irish slang."

Milly and my grandfather stopped talking briefly, looked in her direction and then continued on without missing a beat. I looked towards my mother on the balcony and we both burst out laughing.

All I could think of was that my great, great grandfather must have been working with a bunch of black men, because Honkey is a slang for white people.